I had a buddy come by today and he just finished his masters in applied Test
Flight in Tennessee.... Bottom line we ended up spending the entire
afternoon discussing aerodynamic's and the airflow characteristic's of
laminar Flow....
We talked at length about the three layers associated with the surface of an
airfoil.... smooth laminar flow... transitional flow and turbulant flow....
these all exsist at the surface of our cars... the smooth laminar flow
happens at the nose.... and becomes transitional flow for a few inchs prior
to becoming turbulant laminar flow just a few inches back from the nose of
the car...... Worst case this airflow becomes Seperated and that is PURE
drag....Think of a Stalled airfoil being Seperated Flow....
Bottom line it was an interesting discussion with a very bright well
educated guy.... he gave me this website to check out...
www.dimpletape.com it's about Smoothing out the turbulant airflow as the
air transitions back down the top of the car... or the maximum thickness of
the airfoil....
We also spent a ton of time talking about the manner in which you transition
air from one point on the body to the next allowing for a hole in the
middle.... Very interesting.... think of the cockpit opening of the M/S and
you might understand my interest....
Any questions about the Dimple tape I can't answer I will forward to Alan
and let him fiddle with the answers....
Keith
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